Judges 11

11Now ^||Jephthah the Gileadite was ^aa mighty man of valour, and he was the son of ^†an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. ²And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman. ³Then Jephthah fled ^†from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of ^bTob: and there were gathered ^cvain men to Jephthah, and went out with him. ⁴And it came to pass ^†in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. ⁵And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, ^dthe elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of ^bTob: ⁶And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. ⁷And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, ^eDid not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? ⁸And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be ^dour head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. ⁹And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them before me, shall I be your head? ¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The Lord ^†be witness between us, ^fif we do not so according to thy words. ¹¹Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him ^ghead and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words ^hbefore the Lord in ⁱMizpeh.

^12*And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land? ¹³And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, ^kBecause Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from ^lArnon even unto ^mJabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably. ¹⁴And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon: ¹⁵And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, ⁿIsrael took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon: ¹⁶But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness ^ounto the Red sea, and ^pcame to Kadesh; ¹⁷Then ^qIsrael sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: ^rbut the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel ^sabode in Kadesh. ¹⁸Then they went along through the wilderness, and ^tcompassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and ^ucame by the east side of the land of Moab, ^xand pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab. ¹⁹And ^yIsrael sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, ^zLet us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. ^20aBut Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in ^bJahaz, and fought against Israel. ²¹And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they ^csmote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. ²²And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, ^dfrom Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan. ²³So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it? ²⁴Wilt not thou possess that which ^eChemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever ^fthe Lord our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess. ²⁵And now art thou any thing better than ^gBalak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them, ²⁶While Israel dwelt in ^hHeshbon and her towns, and in ⁱAroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, ^jthree hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time? ²⁷Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the Lord ^kthe Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. ²⁸Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

²⁹Then ^lthe Spirit of the Lord came upon ^||Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. ³⁰And Jephthah ^mvowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, ³¹Then it shall be, that ^†whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, ⁿshall surely be the Lord’s, ^||oand I will offer it up for a burnt offering. ³²So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands. ³³And he smote them from ⁱAroer, even till thou come to ^pMinnith, even twenty cities, and unto ^||the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

³⁴And Jephthah came to ^qMizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out ^rto meet him with ^stimbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; ^||beside her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he ^trent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and ^uI cannot go back. ³⁶And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. ³⁷And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: ^xlet me alone two months, that I may ^†go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. ³⁸And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. ³⁹And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who ^ydid with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a ^||custom in Israel, ⁴⁰That the daughters of Israel went ^†yearly ^||to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.